


How To Treat A Burn

by iwtv



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 16:05:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16643408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv
Summary: Basically written because I felt like there wasn't enough of what Piper (and Alex) went through after she was branded and then re-branded by Red in season 4. Kind of a missing scene one shot with a happy ending.





	How To Treat A Burn

When she was little Piper remembers running around the house one night, hyped up on sugar and playing a game of hide-and-seek with no one in particular. She was hiding around the corner of the kitchen cabinets. Her mother was drunk and smoking when she jumped up from behind the cabinet and said “Boo!”

Her mother, startled, had whirled around. The end of her cigarette had met the end of Piper’s index finger. She remembers the immediate pain of it, of yelping. But it was the pain that followed, growing insidiously worse as the minutes ticked by, that she remembers more.

 

They made it back to the bunks later than everyone else.

CO McCullough was there with a stern face and a few words but they weren’t too late and she passed them by. If she had bothered to even look their way she would have noticed Piper and how she was barely making it. It made Alex angry that she didn’t but Alex said nothing to her. Her focus was on Piper, who could barely walk next to her.

She should have still been too pissed off at Piper to care. Day after day, week after week, Piper had shut her out, too consumed with her own damned inflated ego. By the time Alex had desperately needed to talk to her it was like a wall was between them. Admittedly she had a part to play in that too, but Piper had taken the cake. And yet.

The look on Piper’s face when Red was re-branding her had cut deep. Piper was stripped of all her bravado and was left raw. It wasn’t even just Piper; it was as if something had been ripped away from her when Piper had looked up at her, tears streaming down her face and screaming _I’m sorry, I’m so sorry_ over and over again.

Try as she might Alex couldn’t force the memory from her mind.

Alex held onto the upper part of her arm that Piper kept away from the rest of her body as though it were poison. She did it partly out of protection and partly because she thought Piper might actually collapse. When they reached the concrete walls Piper leaned one side of her body up against them. Beads of sweat clung to her face and her neck. Even through the cotton fabric of her shirt Alex could feel the heat radiating off her arm where she held onto it.

“You’re going to sleep in _my_ bunk tonight,” said Alex.

Piper weakly shook her head. Her eyes were small and heavy.

“No. You’ll get in trouble.”

“I’ll have Red throw some pillows on your bed and cover them. You can sleep against the wall,” said Alex, ignoring her. “No one’s gonna notice once the lights are out.”

Even Piper’s voice, when she spoke next, sounded as small and heavy as her eyes looked.

“Alex, I’ll be fi—”

“Sorry kid, it’s not a request.”

She didn’t know how she managed to keep her own voice sounding so level. She put her other hand on Piper’s back—Jesus, she was burning up—and urged her off the wall to cross the room. Piper obliged her without further objection. She sat down gingerly on Alex’s bottom bunk and let out a breath that was like wind dying in the sails of a ship. Alex opened the small metal cabinet door and retrieved a pop can from it.

“It’s a little warm but it’s wet,” she said.

Piper hadn’t indicated she was thirsty but she took it and drank several long gulps from it. When she handed it back to Alex she looked up and their eyes met. Bright blue eyes that were usually full and clear were dulled with pain. Alex’s chest constricted like it was in a vice.

“Lie down.”

Piper did so and Alex went about removing her boots. Piper was trying to pull her brown prison shirt up and off, leaning up awkwardly and trying desperately to still cradle her burnt arm. Alex abandoned the boots on the floor.

“Hey, wait a sec, I got it.”

Piper sucked air in through her teeth, wincing as the shirt brushed over her arm. There was gauze wrapped around it but Alex saw dotted blood specks that had seeped through. Piper lay back down. Her eyes were already closed but not out of the relief of impending sleep. Dimly Alex wondered why people did that; closed their eyes when they were in pain, as if not seeing somehow lessened it.

“I’m so hot,” Piper muttered.

Alex checked the clock. Still a few minutes left before commissary closed.

“I’m gonna go see what pills I can get,” she said.

“I don’t need anything.”

Piper’s voice was raised and flat and she’d opened her eyes just enough to watch Alex.

“Pipes, this isn’t the time to play suffering sinner, all right? I’ll be right back.”

She stood and left her cubicle without giving Piper a chance to respond. As soon as she turned the corner the tears finally broke out into her eyes. She bedded them back down, wiping at them with a finger so that by the time she reached commissary she looked her usual self. Other than generic aspirin there was some extra strength Bayer on the shelves. She asked for three pills. The CO raised his eyebrows and Alex told him that Piper had burnt herself earlier in the day, in electrical. She said nothing else, hoping against hope the officer wouldn’t be an asshole or decide to turn it into a fiasco and ask to see Piper or the officer on duty in electrical. He didn’t. She got the pills.

She returned to her bunk and gave them to Piper with the pop to down them with. Then she took off her own boots and brown shirt and carefully crawled in next to Piper. She felt very little of the blonde against her except for a slight brush of her knees and maybe her hand.

“Try to get some sleep,” she said lamely over her shoulder, not knowing what else she could offer. She wanted to roll over and look at Piper but she didn’t.

Long minutes ticked away. As the surrounding bunks grew quieter Alex’s mind seemed to grow louder and louder with the events of the day. She shuffled the tiniest bit a few times just to feel Piper’s presence behind her. The bunk was small enough with one person in it. How Piper was managing to seem invisible behind her vexed her and made her unsettled. She had grown quiet. And then,

“Al?”

Alex stopped breathing for just a second, afraid she would miss a small noise or word that might send her rolling over and touching Piper’s face…

“Yea?” she said when nothing followed.

Piper’s hand nudged her arm very gently. Alex lifted it. Piper gingerly snaked her arm over Alex’s side and around her waist. Her midsection and legs pressed up against Alex’s back seconds later and Alex had to fight hard not to sob out loud at the sorely missed contact. She couldn’t really pull Piper to her because it would mean pressing against the burn so she settled for pressing herself back into Piper as best she could.

*

She stands in the shower with her arm held away from the spray of water. Her skin grows cold quickly but it’s better than when the warm water touches the burn. She tries not to look at it, but it’s like trying not to look at road kill that you see up ahead, or the scariest part of a horror movie when you’re young.

She washes herself awkwardly, wincing sharply the few times the water manages to hit her arm. The skin around the burn is reddish and swollen. The burn itself is hidden under a tender layer of scabs.

Alex keeps looking at her from the next stall. Piper won’t meet her eyes.

*

Alex listens to the small talk at their table in the cafeteria. Piper is mostly quiet but a couple of times she chimes in when Nicki says something smartass or when Lorna swoons over another male celebrity. No one brings up what happened. Red comes over, all smiles and bravado, but she looks at Piper and rests a hand on her shoulder, asking if she’s having a good morning. For some reason the gesture makes Alex’s throat grow thick. It’s hard to swallow and she’s no longer hungry. It isn’t all about what happened to Piper, but it’s definitely _about_ Piper.

Later in the day she’s walking to the bathroom with Boo. Alex isn’t surprised when their short conversation comes around to it.

“What Ruiz and her fucking gang did to Chapman was fucked up and wrong, but don’t you forget Vause,” says Boo, eyes full of intensity, “that doesn’t mean you owe her shit. She hooked up with that Aussie bitch the minute you two were broken up.”

Alex also isn’t surprised at Boo’s words. She nods and shrugs, used to the other woman’s fiery sense of righteousness. And Boo’s not wrong. But Alex doesn’t want to think about it. She wants to pee and hurry back to Piper.

*

They go outside for a walk around the path. Piper is quiet. She’s fallen into the habit of holding her arm almost absently.

“Well Gina’s definitely on the rag again,” Alex says. “I heard she went ape shit at commissary this morning when Chang said they were out of ramen noodles. Demanded a better variety of food selection for women with special needs, or some shit.”

“Huh.”

“Personally I always crave something sweet on my period. Like watermelon.”

“Yea.”

“How’s the arm?”

“It’s ok.”

“…Ok.”

_How are you?_

She doesn’t ask it out loud for fear of the exact same answer.

*

She isn’t sure if she desperately wants to be alone or desperately wants Alex’s company. Maybe both at the same time. But Alex is ever present and she can’t bring herself to ask her to leave.

Still she tries to make up her mind, if only to take her thoughts away from the pain in her arm. It’s less now, as long as nothing touches the wound. She’s been taking pain killers. When she forces herself to lift the gauze to look it at she sees all the wrong she’s done the past few weeks and her stomach turns. Oddly enough, it matters less and less why she was actually branded. The ugly marks stand as a testament to the wrongs she’s done against her heart.

*

Dinner time goes much the same as breakfast had. Alex sits across from Piper while they listen to Gina, Nicki, and Lorna talk. Underneath the table Alex stretches out her leg and rubs her boot against Piper’s leg. Piper looks up at her from her plate. Alex offers her a small smile and Piper returns it, though it’s sad.

After dinner it’s movie night. The film is _101 Dalmations_ starring Glenn Close. It was Warren’s choice, but everyone seems to need something cute and relatively innocent to watch. They’re about forty minutes into the film when Piper takes out her earbud and leans over to Alex.

“I’m gonna go back to my bunk.”

“What? Why?”

Piper doesn’t answer her. Just gets up and walks out. Alex waits a beat, then gets up and follows her.

“Piper!”

Piper’s speed walking down the hall and Alex rushes to catch up. Reluctantly Piper stops and turns. Alex’s hand brushes her good arm.

“What’s wrong?”

Piper leans up against the cold concrete wall, looking utterly defeated. She’s holding onto her bad arm.

“I don’t know. I’m just. Not in the mood, I guess.”

She looks likes she’s on the verge of tears, biting her lower lip.

“Pipes…” Alex starts softly.

Piper looks up at her. Her brows pinch together painfully before she looks away again.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” she says. “I mean, I’m glad you’re here. _Really_ glad, but…I’ll be okay. It’s starting to blister over now.”

She indicates her arm. Alex rolls her eyes.

“I’m not here because I’m just worried about your damn arm, ok? It happens to be attached to the rest of you, you know.”

Piper huffs out a sigh.

“Alex, please…”

“Please what?” Alex demands. “You’re still such an asshole, you know that?”

“I don’t want your pity,” Piper snaps.

“Good. Because it’s in short supply these days,” she fires back.

Piper closes her eyes and shakes her head.

“Just…give me some space, all right?”

She tries to brush by Alex and continue down the hall. Alex lets her. For a few seconds. But anger sparks up inside her and she charges after the blonde, this time grabbing her by the elbow.

“Piper wait.”

Piper stops again. She doesn’t try to shrug off Alex’s grip. Sapphire eyes meet her olive ones. The air hangs thick between them for too long. Piper still looks like she’s breaking and Alex can hear her own heart pounding in her chest. Finally Piper looks at her.

“I know you still care about me. But…do you still love me?”

Her voice cracks and Piper’s trying like hell not to let the rest of her face do the same. She’s not seeking some sort of self validation, Alex realizes. She’s genuinely asking the question. It makes Alex angry again.

“What the fuck kind of question is that?”

“Are you upset because the answer is yes or because it’s no?”

A guard is walking towards them. He looks bored and ready to yell at them. Alex pulls Piper a few feet further down the hall, acting like they’re going somewhere. The guard passes them.

“To the movies or your bunks, inmates. Let’s keep it moving.”

He passes them. They stop walking and stand in front of the broom closet. Alex raises her glasses over her head and eyes Piper.

“I doubt this is about you running around with Nazis. So what then? You think I would fall out of love with you just because you saw somebody else over a stupid business venture? Someone I know you didn’t even really care about?” she demands in a hiss.

Piper’s eyes are sharper now but her voice is timid.

“How do you know I didn’t care about Stella?” she ventures, clearly surprised.

Alex’s angry spark dims. She pushes Piper’s bangs behind her ear, thumb caressing her cheek. It’s difficult to answer Piper’s question. At last she just shrugs.

“I just…knew. I know you.”

Piper searches her face. Then her knotted brows soothe out and she lets out a choked sigh. A tear streams down her cheek.

“I’m sorry. I’m so—”

Alex takes her gently by the chin.

“Stop. Apologizing. Come here.”

She envelops Piper in a hug and is overjoyed to the point of her own tears when Piper graciously returns it, arms tight against her. Her hand comes up to the back of Alex’s head and she nestles her face in the crook of Alex’s neck, lips touching her skin there.

“Come here,” Alex says again, opening the door to the broom closet.

“What? Why?”

Alex tugs her inside. The space is small and cramped with cleaning equipment as usual. The rectangle window lets in the only light from the hall. Alex kisses Piper on the lips, pushing her up against the wall. It’s a kiss like velvet but long. Piper accepts it. Their mouths shift together more and more until Alex’s tongue slips inside and Piper moans. But her palms push against Alex’s shirt until Alex pulls away. Piper looks puzzled, lips still parted but nothing coming out of them.

“Just let me touch you, you dummy,” Alex says in a husky whisper.

A small noise rattles up from Piper’s throat and she sucks in her bottom lip. Alex has always loved it when Piper does that. Her stomach does a light flip as a new kind of spark touches deep in her gut. She raises a thumb to Piper’s lip. Piper sucks the tip of her thumb inside.

The small space becomes hot after that.

It wasn’t what Alex had in mind, exactly. She just wants to touch Piper’s skin and hug and kiss her, but even after the hard day the two of them are like magnets.

They’re pawing at each other, Piper’s hands shoved up under Alex’s shirt to get at skin and Alex’s hand inside Piper’s pants. Alex maneuvers her over to the tiny sink and Piper automatically hops up on it. She spreads her legs as Alex’s fingers find the delicate heat between her thighs. She pushes her mouth urgently against Alex’s, tongue demanding. It sends hot chills through Alex’s spine and she feels herself growing wet.

Piper is usually the more aggressive one during sex but now she lets Alex do as she pleases. Alex works her clit until Piper is slick all over, then slides one, two, and finally three fingers inside her. Piper leans back against the wall. Her hands are fisted into Alex’s shirt, clinging. Alex works her until Piper is panting and muttering curses. Then the pads of her fingers stroke against the spot she knows so well inside Piper. She watches as Piper’s breaths become hard and short.

“Alex,” she warns in a cut off, raw whisper.

Alex fucks her relentlessly until Piper’s eyes close a final time and she stifles a long moan, muscles spasming against Alex’s fingers. Alex gently withdraws and makes slow circles over her pussy, watching as Piper comes through her orgasm. She’s still fisting Alex’s shirt. Both of them are breathless when Piper pulls her in for a hard kiss. When it’s done Piper cracks a broad smile at her, white teeth flashing. Happiness and relief flood over Alex.

“There’s my girl,” she grins.

There’s more commotion from just outside and they know their time is up.

*

That night Alex lays wide awake in her bunk and it doesn’t bother her in the least. She’s smiling to herself, gazing at the graffiti etched into the metal of the bunk above her but not really seeing it.

She’s glad Piper is going to be okay. She finally admits to herself how terrifying it was to see her in so much pain. It scares her a little, knowing how far she’s fallen in love with Piper.

It scares her even more to admit that she never fell out of love with her.

She’s starting to doze off when she hears someone approaching her cubicle. It’s Piper. She’s carrying a bed sheet with her.

“Shhh!” she says when Alex opens her mouth.

Alex watches as Piper quickly and carefully tucks the ends of the sheet under the mattress of the top bunk, letting the rest of it hang over Alex’s bunk. She pulls it back and Alex scoots back to make room for her.

“Is there a bad thunderstorm or something?” she muses quietly to the blonde, smirking.

Piper doesn’t miss a beat.

“Terrible,” she replies, sliding in under the covers. “I’m worse than a dog. I need reassurance.”

“Mmm, well you’ve arrived at the right bunk.”

Piper immediately kisses her.

“I don’t think I deserve you,” she says somberly. “But I am so fucking, _exquisitely_ happy you want me.”

Alex quirks an eyebrow at her.

“You’re like my perfect drug.”

_And you deserve to be happy_ she wants to add but doesn’t.

Piper leans over her and kisses her jawline and her neck. Her hands snake under Alex’s shirt and take hold of her breasts, thumbs rolling over her nipples. The contact has been sorely missed and Alex groans deep in her throat. Piper’s lips are everywhere, leaving wet trails over her neck and throat and chest. She lifts Alex’s shirt and sucks gently here and there. Her tongue laps out expertly, titillating Alex until she’s panting the way Piper was in the broom closet. Then Piper pulls down her panties and kisses under her navel and lower. It feels so good it almost tickles. When her mouth alights over Alex’s sex she inhales sharply, then moans as Piper’s entire mouth clamps over her, smothering all her most sensitive areas in hot wetness.

“Fuck, Piper…”

She’s so aroused she’s almost trembling when Piper slides her fingers inside, moving back up over Alex’s topside with more kissing trails. Alex roughly yanks Piper’s shirt up. Flushed skin rubs and slides across flushed skin. Piper lets out a shaky noise as her fingers burrow deeper. Her thumb rubs over Alex’s clit. Alex rakes her fingers over Piper’s back and into her hair.

“Piper,” she breaths out again. She’s normally not the type to call out names but she’s been touch-starved from Piper and her body is screaming out for more.

She arches against Piper, who re-captures her mouth. She drives her tongue deep into Alex’s mouth. Alex tastes herself. She feels her orgasm creeping closer. Everything throbs and aches in all the right ways.

Piper isn’t even hurrying.

Her orgasm hits her hard. The little gasps and hums in her throat grow louder and Piper clamps a hand over her mouth just in time. Her fingers fuck her over and over and Alex sees stars behind her eyelids. Her legs jolt out, then bend and clamp over Piper’s body straddled between her. Piper stays inside her. Alex digs her fingers into Piper’s ribs, then her hair. Piper removes her hand from her mouth.

They look at each other for long seconds, breaths mingling in the tiny space between their lips. Alex knows her eyes are bright again; two tiny pinpricks of light are looking at her in the surrounding darkness.

Piper settles in behind her and molds her body around Alex’s backside. Alex takes a moment to look at the window branded on her arm. It’s still red but it’s healing. Piper seems less protective of it now.

She falls fast asleep and sleeps all night. She dreams of the two of them in real clothes and a real bed again.

*

A flood of white light settles behind her eyelids. Alex blinks awake. The bed sheet has been pulled back. Red’s figure is standing there, one hand on her hip and an amused expression on her face.

“At least now we know what was more important than watching Dalmatian puppies on the big screen,” she muses in her deep Russian accent.

Standing next to her in the opening to the cubicle is Nicki, arms crossed and a smile the size of the fucking Cheshire Cat’s on her lips. It takes Alex a minute to register the end of last night. Then Piper shifts behind her.

“Oh shit. Hi guys,” she says brightly, peeping up from behind Alex’s back.

Alex rubs at her eyes.

“Oh fuck,” she says sleepily but the smirk is already on her face.

“Yea ya did,” chimes in Nicki, sauntering up to them. “You, uh, might wanna cover up the evidence though. Literally.”

She runs her tongue over her lips lewdly.

Alex reddens as she realizes both of them are topless under the sheets. She smiles cheekily.

“Excuse us,” she mumbles, pulling the sheet back down over the bunk.

Piper is grinning uncontrollably as they dig around for their tops.

“Wait, wait,” Nicki’s voice rings out. “This is a moment and I don’t wanna miss out.”

A second later the sheet is ripped away and Nicki plunges down on top of them.

“Jesus, Nichols!”

“Oh fuck off, Nicki!”

They’re all snickering and trying to kick Nicki out of the bunk. Alex can’t see Red but she hears her chuckle and mutter something in Russian. A minute later they emerge from the bunk, fully clothed. Red nods at Piper.

“How’s the arm?”

Piper looks meaningfully at Alex.

“A lot better, thanks.”

“Come on,” says Red. “Let’s go see what slop awaits us for breakfast.”

The four of them leave the cubicle. Nicki steps between Piper and Alex and loops her arms through theirs, still leering. For the first time in a while Alex feels good. She looks over at Piper again. Piper smiles warmly at her. Hope swells in her chest.

Maybe, just maybe, they’ll make it through prison—together.

***


End file.
